Milwaukee Catholic Herald – March 15, 2007

Architect of area churches
highlighted in new book

Peter J. Brust was uncle to Bishop Leo Brust

By Tom Jozwik
Special to your Catholic Herald

Anna Passante, author of the recently released book, “A God-Given Talent: Peter J. Brust, Architect, His Work and Legacy, 1906-2006,” stands in front of St. Augustine of Hippo Church in Milwaukee, one of many churches designed by Brust. (Catholic Herald photo by Sam Lucero)

Books available
• Copies of "A God-Given Talent" can be obtained by sending a $28.45 check or money order to ElexDay Publications, c/o Anna Passante, 3207 S. Indiana Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207.

• Books are also available at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, the Pabst Mansion, Marquette University book store, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee book store.

MILWAUKEE — He was the brother of a prominent priest and the uncle of an auxiliary bishop, but Peter J. Brust’s primary legacy to the Milwaukee Archdiocese is a legacy of brick and mortar.

The architect-relative of Msgr. Nicholas Brust and Bishop Leo Brust designed many churches and other religious buildings in southeastern Wisconsin. Peter Brust’s professional efforts serve as the subject of a self-published book, “A God-Given Talent: Peter J. Brust, Architect: His Work and Legacy, 1906-2006,” by Anna Passante.

The author, a retired school librarian, is the wife of Brust descendant Ronald Passante, a member of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in St. Francis and a resident of Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood. The Passantes live near Brust Avenue, a street named for Peter Brust’s father, Christopher.

Passante’s nearly 300-page book boasts an abundance of black and white photographs of Peter Brust “commissions,” both religious and secular. Included are numerous photos of buildings constructed in the 1920s, when, according to Passante, Brust and Richard Philipp “had the largest architectural firm in the state.”

Other pictures capture projects from Brust’s on-the-job training days, as apprentice and draftsman, in an era when university-trained architects were scarce and regarded with skepticism; from his twilight years, when he and sons Paul and John practiced together under the trade name Brust & Brust; and from the 60 years following his death, during which time Brust & Brust became Brust-Zimmerman, and Brust-Zimmerman became the Zimmerman Design Group.

A mustachioed and bow-tied Peter Brust, his hair parted in the middle, is one of several images on the new book’s cover. Another cover image is the chapel dedicated to St. Joseph at the School Sisters of St. Francis motherhouse on South Layton Boulevard in Milwaukee.

Passante writes that construction of that still-used Romanesque edifice “got underway in 1913, and it was to take four years to complete at a cost of $600,000. The roof alone cost $200,000. The chapel measured 200 feet by 90 feet and sat 500 people. The dome rose 70 feet above the sanctuary. Seven kinds of marble from all over the world were used in the interior.”

The author identifies St. Joseph Chapel as “the most glorious of all the projects done by (the Brust and Philipp) architectural firm” during its three-decade history. But it was just one of many “ecclesiastical commissions” with which Peter Brust was connected. Churches included St. Mary, Juneau; St. Louis, Caledonia; St. Mary, Lomira; St. Joan of Arc, Okauchee; St. Anthony, Pewaukee; St. Rose of Lima, Fredonia; St. Peter Claver, Sheboygan; St. John the Evangelist, Kohler; St. Alphonsus, New Munster; St. Mary, Kansasville (Dover); St. Florian, West Milwaukee; and St. Anne and St. Augustine of Hippo, Milwaukee, as well as church-school combination structures for the former St. Boniface, Holy Angels and St. Leo parishes, all in Milwaukee.

The St. Leo building now functions as St. Leo Catholic Urban Academy. A few of the other buildings have been razed or otherwise deactivated as Catholic worship sites.

The 1901 church in Caledonia was a particularly significant project for Brust. Some 40 years earlier, his carpenter father had built its wooden predecessor. At the time, the younger Brust was employed by the Milwaukee firm of Ferry & Clas. It is likely that Brust, who became the firm’s head draftsman, worked on such 1890s Ferry & Clas projects as the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist bell tower and the Frederick Pabst Mansion. For nearly 70 years, the latter housed Milwaukee’s archbishops and other clergymen — including, for a time, Fr. Leo Brust.

Peter Brust designed St. Mary’s Academy in St. Francis during the first decade of the 20th century. Subsequent religious institution commissions included monasteries for the Carmelite Fathers at Holy Hill and the Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary in Wauwatosa, as well as Mercy High School in Milwaukee, Holy Rosary Academy (later St. Bonaventure) in Sturtevant and several Saint Francis Seminary buildings in St. Francis.

Ecclesiastical commissions didn’t end with the patriarch’s death in 1946. Between that time and 1965, Brust & Brust designed church buildings for St. Joseph, Big Bend; St. Gregory the Great and St. John Kanty, Milwaukee; and Holy Apostles, New Berlin. The firm also remodeled the church for Immaculate Conception, Milwaukee; designed the St. Andrew, Delavan, and St. Aloysius, West Allis, rectories, and handled a Marquette University High School addition. Yet another commission, in the early 1960s, was De Sales Preparatory Seminary, now the Archbishop Cousins Catholic Center in St. Francis.

“A God-Given Talent” was the proverbial “labor of love” for Passante, the author said during an interview in her 110-year-old home, which was not designed by Peter Brust.

Passante remarked that she “did everything but run the printing press,” with editing assistance from daughter, Michelle, and graphic design help from son, Robb. Passante spent approximately three years researching and writing.

“I dreamt about it every night,” she said. “I proofread in my dreams. I think (my husband) was glad when it was done!”

While more a reference book than a biography, “A God-Given Talent” contains considerable biographical information about Brust family members. The reader is told that Peter Brust was born in the former Town of Lake in Milwaukee County, one of eight children. He received his early education at Sacred Heart Parochial School in St. Francis and later attended neighboring Pio Nono College, on what is now the Thomas More High School campus.

Brust was married twice. His first wife (born Olga Greulich) died young from complications during a surgical procedure. Passante said her book has generated some “very glowing comments.”